Legendary Lover (28 page)

245

He shrugged again. "I don't know. Lord, my head is pounding."

"Go home. I'll take care of Trevor."

"Make sure I pay for those favors you call in."

"Of course.
That's my business."

"I'm fortunate to have a friend who's so competent. How many scrapes have you saved me from?"

"Starting at Eton?"

"I saved your ass there a number of times, too, if I recall." Bigger and stronger, Jack had come to Austin's aid on more than one occasion; the slender child had not been up to the bullying.

"I know, and I'm grateful. But then I made us both a deal of money in our gambling scheme."

Jack chuckled. "We were good."

"Always.
Now, go. You look tired. Everything will be taken care of."

C3*>ELLA ROSE
VERY
 
LATE
.

Finally, Sarah thought, her impatience having mounted during the hour she'd waited for her aunt to wake. Pushing past the maid who had come from the bedroom to fetch, Bella's morning chocolate, Sarah charged into her aunt's boudoir. "I thought you'd never
wakej
" she heatedly exclaimed.

"Do pull that drape back over the window, will you, darling? Alice thinks one actually wants to see the sun in the morning, poor girl."

"
Pve
been waiting ever so long to see you," Sarah crossly noted, jerking the drape over the bright window. "It's almost noon."

246

"Lord Courtenay was particularly attentive, and didn't let me leave until very late."

"His wife will appreciate your interest. She's busy with Lord Simon, gossip has it. But I don't care about any of those people. I have problems of my own."

Bella struggled up into a sitting position, so she could see her niece more clearly. "Tell Aunt Bella, darling." She pushed a platinum-colored curl away from her eyes. "What can be so important you're frowning this early in the day?"

"I'm more pregnant than I admitted, and now, it seems, Lord
Redvers
is going to delay us in court until it's going to be
too
late."

Bella sank back against her pillows again and sighed. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because I didn't want anyone to know, of course," Sarah retorted, standing at the end of the bed with a scowl for her aunt. "I thought Papa could make him marry me right away."

"Now don't be
tantrumish
, darling," Bella hastily
murmured,
her mind racing. "These things can be dealt with. Sit down"—she pointed at a chair near her—"and we'll see what we can do."

"
Vincenzo
is being difficult, too," Sarah muttered, dropping into the chair with an unladylike plummet.

"Menials are never a problem. I'll speak to him and see that he understands his position."

"He says his family is as well-born as ours. His papa is a court physician."

Bella snorted.
"Hardly a position of wealth.
Your father is considerably more important than an apothecary. Leave
Vincenzo
to me. Now as for your,
er
, other situation. Tell me, how far along are you?"

247

"Almost four months."

Bella pursed her lips, understanding the time constraints. "Perhaps I should talk to your father."

"Don't. He'll scream at me and tell me how I ruined the family name and prospects, and Mama will weep like she does for anything at all, and what good will that do any of us? Can't we
make
Lord
Redvers
come up to scratch?"

"Maybe I should go and talk to him."

"Oh, would you? I just know you can make him listen."

"Where's my chocolate?" Bella irritably inquired, faced with disaster impossibly early. "Alice knows 1
need
my chocolate the second I wake." Her head was still painful from the champagne she'd drunk the evening before, and now Sarah had handed her a problem that required clear thinking.

"If you take care of this for me, Bella," her niece soulfully declared, "I'll be in your debt forever."

"Ah, there you are—at last!" Bella waved her maid forward with fluttering fingers and once she'd taken her first sip of chocolate, she proceeded to chastise the servant girl until she was in tears. Shooing her out of the room, she sank back against her pillows. "It never pays to let servants become complacent. Now where were we?" She glanced at her niece over the rim of her chocolate cup. "Lord
Redvers
will need some very strong incentive to capitulate to your father's demands. I wonder what we can devise to coerce his cooperation . . ."

//HILE
   
JACK
   
WAS
   
SLEEPING
   
AWAY
   
HIS
   
HEAD

wound
and fatigue, and Bella and Sarah were con-

248

cocting
a plan to bring him to the altar, Venus was about to begin her first day back at the hospital in
Montmartre
.

She'd hardly slept the previous night, her thoughts consumed with images of Jack, her sense of longing so intense, she finally left her bed before dawn, having given up any prospect of further sleep.

While she kept her own apartment in Paris, she was having breakfast at her parents' home that morning. Pleading exhaustion last night, she'd agreed to see them at breakfast and relate all that had transpired in England. The additional days of her holiday would require a tactful explanation. She had no intention of discussing Jack with them.

Fortunately, she had to face only her parents that morning; her siblings were busy with other activities.
Only her younger sister, Caroline, still lived with her parents, and she was at the track.
Her stepbrother, Chris, was in China at the moment, while
Merimee
, married and expecting her second child, had gone to the country.

She was greeted warmly by the servants when she arrived.

"Finally, Miss
Duras
, we have you back," the major-domo, Dumont, said, beaming.

"The weather was particularly beautiful in England," she replied. "It tempted me to stay. How is Yvette doing?"

"She's going to be running again soon. The doctor took the cast off last week." Dumont's daughter had fallen from a tree and broken her leg, and Venus's clinic had treated the young girl.

249

"It's good to have you back, miss." The footman who took her hat and gloves smiled.

"Thank you, Jean-Claude. Has your
fiancee
set a wedding date yet?"

"Yes, ma'am."
He blushed.
"On Midsummer Day."

"Congratulations. I knew she couldn't wait," she pleasantly said.

"Your papa said she can join the staff."

"How fortunate, then, for my parents. Marie is the best seamstress I know."

Venus had always taken an interest in the staffs families, and they reciprocated by viewing her as their personal responsibility. Her parents teased her that the servants knew more about her schedule and activities than they did. But in a way, they were her family, during the times her parents and siblings were traveling abroad. She knew the
belowstairs
regions intimately.

"Chef made chocolate
madeleines
for you this morning," Dumont noted as he led her down the hall to the breakfast room.
"In honor of your return."

"Gabriel's
madeleines
are worth a trip back to Paris. I can.
feel
my day improving already."

When she greeted her parents in the sunny breakfast room facing the gardens, she felt her melancholy lighten.

"Darling,"
Trixi
cried, rising in a rustle of yellow striped silk to give her daughter a hug.
"How good to see you again.
Pasha, look," she joyfully exclaimed.

Pasha was coming around the table to greet his daughter, his smile broad. "The sights in England must have been fascinating, to keep you away so long." As his wife* relinquished her hold, he took his turn, hugging his daughter in welcome.

250

"Your papa knows, of course,"
Trixi
lightly said, sitting down again. "He just wants to tease you a bit."

With a telegraph not only at the shipping office, but in the house, Venus had anticipated that rumors of her affair had reached Paris long before she arrived. "I did have a wonderful holiday." Taking her seat at the breakfast table, she looked at both her parents and smiled. "However, my days of leisure are over, and I'm
back
home to work again."

"There, I told you, Pasha. She's more sensible than to be taken in by a charming rogue."

"I thought you liked charming rogues," Pasha said to his wife, smiling. Their initial meeting years ago had been unconventional.

"Not for my daughter. Don't look at me like that. It's altogether different."

"What your mother's trying to say is, whatever you want, we want for you."

"I know, Papa. Thank you. I'm really pleased to be
back
home. Did they tell you what I acquired in England?" The ship had been unloaded yesterday, directly after docking.

"I had all the freight delivered to
Montmartre
this morning. You'll be greeted with mountains of crates.

"It's so exciting." She leaned forward, her enthusiasm evident. "I brought back so many new pieces of equipment, some absolutely wonderful. It's going to make a big difference in our treatment facilities. Some of the new surgical tools will allow us to better our survival rates. And you'll have to see the operating room lights I brought back. Some run on zinc batteries, although they're too expensive for everyday use. But on those occasions when precise lighting is required, well . . ."

251

She sat back in satisfaction. "Our hospital will be able to offer the best."

"I'll drive up with you after breakfast," her father offered. "It sounds as though you've brought back a treasure trove."

"
Caro
and I will come to see everything once she returns from the track. And then you must see the races with us tomorrow," her mother declared. "Your papa's horses have a very good chance to take the first two races."

The talk turned to family matters, and as Venus was brought up to date on the activities of her siblings, she forgot for a time her longing for the man she'd left in England.

Chapter 18

esse

^r
ACK
  
WOKE
  
LATE
  
IN
  
THE
  
AFTERNOON
  
AND

immediately
heard Peggy's voice.

"I was beginning to think you might have a concussion."

Startled, he took a moment to reconcile time, place, and Peggy in his bedroom. Rolling over slowly in deference to his throbbing head, he saw her seated near his bed, a glass of liquor in her hand.

"It's after five. You slept twenty hours. Are you hungry?"

"Is that brandy? I could use some."

"I suppose I should check with your doctor."

"He wouldn't dare oppose me, anyway. Four fingers will do for a start." A doctor had been called once Jack arrived home, and his wound had been properly dressed.

"
Hmpf
," Peggy muttered, coming to her feet. But she knew Dr. Litton, and Jack was right. "You should have something to eat as well," she said, moving toward the liquor tray.

"Later. I prefer some numbness first."

"Trevor tried to kill you, I hear."

"Luckily he was never a good shot."

She
 
filled
 
a
 
glass—more
 
than
 
four
 
fingers—and

253

walked
back to the bed. "You're a big man. By the way, Austin sent a note. 1 read it although your footman didn't want to relinquish it without your approval."

"There's an uneven contest," Jack said with a grin, taking the glass she held out to him.

"That's what I said. I've been having my way for seventy years and wasn't to about to stop for him. Now drink that slowly or you'll get dizzy," she warned, sitting down again and taking up her brandy. "For your information, Trevor is on his way to Van
Diemen's
Land, Austin said, with a sizable sum of money. Enough, he explained, to live on there in style—whatever that means. I can't imagine there's a scrap of society in such a place."

"Did you also hear Trevor commissioned men to murder Venus?"

"He deserved to be killed for such a low, despicable crime. You're much too generous, and you'll probably be sorry you didn't dispatch him permanently. I don't trust him not to come back even from that distant shore."

"At least he'll be gone for a while," Jack said with a sigh, his own feelings concerning Trevor's life equivocal.

"Let us hope forever. Now, tell me, what's this I hear about you marrying the Palmer gel?"

Jack choked on his brandy. "Jesus, Peggy, give me some warning when you're going to poleax me."

"Is it- true?"

"Of course not."

"That's what I told
Addie
Buchan, who swore she'd seen the marriage license at the Palmers."

"It's a misunderstanding."

"Like the one you had with the
Pagets
and the Wad-
dingtons
?"